There was a time when reading books was considered as part of the grooming a child. He was given different sorts of knowledge that he would require in his lifetime.  It was an important part of a child’s growing phase. Books were considered to be the source of knowledge and a way to learn and unearth the secrets of the world gone past. People used to covet good libraries and rare collections of books which, however, where in the possession of only the aristocracy or the highly learned. While the invention of printing press made the books available to the common masses, the further advance in technology and the arrival of computers, video games, internet has made people think of books as the companions of boring people and nerds. With the speeding up of life in general and distribution and acquisition of knowledge and information in particular, the importance of books and the role they play in shaping the society is diminishing. The widespread use of internet as a source of information has made the people lazy enough to ‘Google’ all the required information.
I wonder when all the sayings about ‘books being the friends of a man’ and ‘the most faithful among all’ lost their essence. No more are books considered to be a source of entertainment or an important part of a person’s development in order to fit into the society of the well educated and well knowing. The younger generation either complains of books to be too boring or too slow. There is an increasing perception that books are for those who have patience. Youngsters consider the books to be old-fashioned and too effort requiring to be able to survive in the age of such speed.
Another concept that prevails in the present day world, especially among the gen-next, is that books are only consulted or read to ‘score’, whether that involves scoring good marks in exams or getting through a competitive exams and tests. These are the only clientele left for the books nowadays. People turn to books only to fulfill certain demands of theirs and not in quest of knowledge as was true in the old days.
When I tell my friends that I read such and such book they often find it weird that I read books that are not in my ‘course’ or do not pertain to any of my subjects. As if this was not enough, they even do not like visiting a library, as if they would be forced or tortured to read if they enter a library.
It is often disturbing to know that as the world progress and requires all-rounder so that they survive in the rat race of the world, people choose to keep their minds shut to the vast knowledge provided and stored in books. Youngsters give more importance to socializing (which has now reached new levels with the introduction of social networking sites on the internet) and hanging out and waste hours just lazing around or roaming the streets in the name of ‘hanging out’ but consider reading books a waste of time. They often complain of not having enough time to spare to read books.
The parents also, on the other hand, do not encourage their children to read. Most of them are content that their children are reading their school books or course related books. I have even seen parents who discourage and deject the reading of extracurricular books saying that these books won’t lead them anywhere and were a complete waste of time. And if by any chance the children of such parents score badly in their exams, they are blamed of reading crappy books which is ruining their career and life. With very few in the younger generation left to care about the art of reading, this attitude of the parents is not helping in any way.
Particularly in Kashmir, I have come to notice that there are very few well equipped and well functioning libraries which in itself tell the lore of the reading habits of Kashmiris. It is widely believed that if you are making frequent visits to a library or are always reading books, you must be preparing for an exam, most probably IAS or KAS. And accordingly, if you are not preparing for them you have no business in visiting libraries.
Puzzling it is to me that how come the elaborate process of socializing is still intact (despite changes in ways of socializing) in this ‘fast’ world and the simple act of reading has lost its importance. Also, neither has the advancement in technology (e-books, blogs, online articles) helped to boost the youngsters to read.
In this age of speed, all we care about is getting results and being goal oriented. Meanwhile, aren’t we missing something big? Something big like living a good and productive life with all passion and fervor.
Materialism and consumerism have done the damage and all evils have sprouted here. These have left us with the mindset that anything that we do should have solid results or profits. Anything that does not give us profits is not worth doing. Same has become the case with reading books, where we only read books for certain gains that we want to make. I am not saying that reading books for getting certain results is wrong. But what I want to say is that books hold much more than just a few lines of information that we require, they are more than that. They have in them stored a whole new world, waiting to be explored and enjoyed. They have the capacity to engulf us in a world of their own and mystify us with the treasures that they store. It has never hurt anyone if they gained a bit more knowledge than they were required to.
Don’t make reading books an obligation, make it a hobby and the world will be a better place because you will be seeing it in a new light- the light of books.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST